Selecting a Solution

The SoftwareKey System^tm is a large, flexible system, which makes a great deal of options available in order to provide the best solutions possible for simple licensing needs, complex licensing needs, and everything in between. Currently, you can choose between Instant Protection PLUS 3 or our Protection PLUS API. If you find that selecting the correct licensing client is confusing or overwhelming, contact us for guidance. The first step is to identify some key characteristics of your application. It is helpful (and often necessary) to know your application's licensing requirements to select the most appropriate solution.

Licensing Client Solutions

Instant Protection PLUS 3

Instant Protection PLUS 3 provides a wizard-based interface, and requires little to no source code changes. This makes it easier and faster to implement compared to the Protection PLUS API. It is ideal for Windows desktop applications that don't have complex licensing requirements. You should consider Instant Protection PLUS 3 under the following conditions:

The application is a standard Windows GUI application (or is not a service or web application, and is not a component that should not show Windows GUI dialogs).
The application does not have many or any requirements which would require a customized implementation.
The application does not need to support volume licensing.
The application does not need access to highly customized license data (such as custom string or XML formatted data).
The application is a native application (written in C/C++), a .NET/managed application, or consists of a mix of both native and managed code.
The application licensing dialogs do not need to be customized, and do not need to support UNICODE characters.

Protection PLUS 5 SDK APIs

If Instant Protection PLUS 3 does not suit your needs as described above, or if you simply prefer more control, one of the Protection PLUS 5 SDK application programming interfaces (APIs) would be a better choice. Please contact us for more information.

PLUSManaged

If your application is written using the .NET Framework (C# or Visual Basic .NET), then PLUSManaged is the rich, object-oriented, fully managed API designed for you.

PLUSNative

If your application is a native application (written in C/C++, for example), or is written in a language which can make calls to shared/dynamic-link libraries, then PLUSNative is the API designed for your needs.